Turner Classic Movies in association with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, digitally restored by Flicker Alley, music by Robert Israel, dedicated to Irvin Kershner.

“Two Arabian Knights” was digitally restored by Flicker Alley but has not been commercially released. It airs occasionally on TCM, which is where I got it in 2016, during the William Cameron Menzies retrospective hosted by Robert Osborne and James Curtis. The restoration is quite good, but the nitrate damage is still apparent in some segments.

Writing in the New York Times (Oct. 24, 1927), Mordaunt Hall said:

“Two Arabian Knights,” the current picture at the Paramount Theatre, is a genuinely clever comedy in which the principals scorn the usual fractious tactics and rely on intelligent acting. The two actors who supply the fun in this bright piece of work are William Boyd, the hero of DeMille’s “Volga Boatman,” and Louis Wolheim, a stage and screen portrayer of choice villainy who figured as Captain Flagg in the play “What Price Glory.”

This production has been expertly handled by Lewis Milestone, who has performed his task with a degree of sanity that is most welcome. Who knows but what this photoplay may serve to discourage silly and boisterous efforts and encourage this same restrained type of comedy? This film is filled with splendid photographic effects that have evidently been made at no small cost. Where a number of men are needed to add to the impression of a sequence, Mr. Milestone has not stinted himself, for he shows an imposing array of “extras,” all suitably costumed.

Note: If I had to pick a phrase to describe “Two Arabian Knights,” it would not be a “restrained type of comedy,” but that’s how it was viewed at the time.

I would love to get into the backstory on “Two Arabian Knights,” but it’s a long saga and ongoing.

Every once in a while, I’ll be incredibly lucky and get to the movie and maybe one of the actors on Tuesday. Hit the jackpot this time.

I am so looking forward to Saturday and your breakdown on this movie: the wonderful cast combinations story (who would think: the future Hopalong Cassidy and the future Frankenstein monster together!,) the Oscar category story, the Howard Hughes story and the ‘music on a silent film’ story. Will you have enough room to comment on it all?

Also, did you know that the film is airing on TCM next Friday, May 3? Anyhooooo…